The Moore 4800 Speedisealer.RTM. pressure sealing system has become an accepted piece of equipment for handling a variety of business forms, particularly mailers, in a very efficient manner, without requiring the use of expensive and difficult to maintain (in an office environment) heat sealing equipment. The Moore system, such as shown in U.S. patent application Ser. No. 07/417,725 filed Oct. 6, 1989, the disclosure of which is hereby incorporated by reference herein, and which utilizes a document rotator, such as shown in U.S. application Ser. No. 07/697,994 filed May 10, 1991, typically either delivers the forms in an in-line configuration, the forms coming into the equipment at one end, and out at an opposite end along a straight line from the inlet, or delivers the forms in a position at a right angle from the inlet. The only significant drawback to such a system is the floor space requirements. In office environments where floor space is at a premium, and/or where it is desirable to be able to have one operator easily monitor both the infeed and outfeed operations, or simultaneously monitor several machines, the conventional equipment is less than desirable.
According to the present invention, two pressure sealing devices such as those in the conventional Moore 4800 Speedisealer.RTM. are mounted in a vertically stacked orientation so that they take up a minimum of floor space, and so that an operator standing at a single location can monitor both the infeed to and outfeed from the pressure sealer.
The pressure sealing system according to the invention uses basically the same types of sealing devices and rotator as in the conventional Moore 4800 system, and is described in the above-mentioned patent applications. However in order to accommodate vertical stacking of the sealing units a few basic changes are made.
One basic change of the system according to the invention compared to the conventional Moore equipment is to utilize a horizontal axis relatively large diameter drum, with conveyor tapes associated with the drum. The drum diameter is typically about the same as the vertical spacing between the nips of the rollers of the first and second sealers. The conveyor tapes deliver forms from the first sealer, around the outside circumference of the drum, and then toward the second sealer. Preferably the rotator is provided between the drum and the second sealer and the forms pass through the first sealer in landscape mode and through the second sealer in portrait mode. Proper delivery of the forms is simplified if they have these relative orientations.
Another significant departure from the invention compared to the conventional Moore system is the ability to drive the drive rollers for both sealers at the same time, with the same mechanism. The lower rollers of the topmost sealer can be connected by a common belt drive to the upper rollers of the lowermost sealers, and all such rollers can be driven by a common motor. This thus simplifies the equipment that is utilized and reduces the cost of the equipment. This arrangement also inherently facilitates utilizing common conveyor tapes for part of both the upper and lower sealers, common middle conveyor tapes being provided.
It is the primary object of the present invention to provide a compact pressure sealing system, and effective method of handling business forms to effect pressure sealing of strips of adhesive thereon. This and other objects of the invention will become clear from an inspection of the description of the invention and from the appended claims.